Star Trek Online has a serious crush on Discovery right now — and why not, since the show has propeled the franchise back into the mainstream spotlight? While the Battle at the Binary Stars is not a new operation to the game, arriving last fall, but this month marks the first time that it’s been marked as a featured operation. “During this simulation, your ship will take on the appearance of a Federation ship from the Discovery era,” Cryptic said, “although you will retain your powers, bridge officers, and trays — it is only a visual change. What can you learn from one of the most disastrous battles in Federation history, and can your tactics turn the tide of the battle?” This is just the beginning of the rest of the news! Read on for a roundup of other smaller MMO news stories and videos from this past week in this edition of The MOP Up (and if you don’t see a news story that we should have, drop us a tip)! Running low on … [Read more...] about The MOP Up: Star Trek Online’s Battle at the Binary Stars heats up
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TennoCon 2018: Deep-diving Warframe’s Fortuna and Railjack
Play Warframe for freeMany fans, including me, are talking about still riding high after Warframe’s amazing TennoCon 2018 announcements this past weekend. That was some pretty epic stuff (I have to admit I wonder how on earth they will manage to top themselves next year!). I was excited to share the news about Fortuna and Railjack with you as fast as I could; the only downside of that was it was too brief to add in many of the deeper details. I couldn’t include the insights and commentary that Game Director Steve Sinclair and Live Operations and Community Producer Rebecca Ford offered when I chatted with them. If only there were a way to impart that extra goodness to you and add in my own impressions. Oh wait! While there’s certainly more to learn about the upcoming expansion/updates, here’s a bit more information about the underground all that cool stuff we can’t wait to experience for ourselves. Venus: Bigger, better, colder Back when I … [Read more...] about TennoCon 2018: Deep-diving Warframe’s Fortuna and Railjack
MMO Week in Review: The E3 hullabaloo
Support Massively OP on PatreonWere you too busy gaming this week to pay attention to MMO news? Get caught up every Sunday evening with Massively Overpowered’s Week in Review! E3 2018 positively dominated this week, with big reveals for MMO and multiplayer online fans for the first time in years. Fallout 76 has MMO gamers alternately concerned and hyped, Elder Scrolls Online revealed its next two DLC, and hey, we even got some news on WoW Classic. Meanwhile, among the big crowdfunded games, Camelot Unchained posted good news, Crowfall posted not-so-good news, and Star Citizen was all over the place. We’ve rounded up every single post we’ve done from the con so far right here, but if you just want the highlights, then read on for the very best of this week’s MMO news and opinions from E3 and everywhere else. THIS WEEK’S TOP STORIES World of Warcraft Classic is still under development, will begin with patch 1.12 - If it seems like World of … [Read more...] about MMO Week in Review: The E3 hullabaloo
15 Gaming Influences
Gaming Influences A few days ago one of my friends that works in the games industry was talking about a thing that had been circulating around his studio. The idea was for each of the folks to create a list of the fifteen games that most influenced them, or taunt them something new that games could do. While this is a really helpful exercise in the gaming industry I am sure, I figured it would also be pretty fun to do as a lifelong gamer and gaming blogger. The thing I was not realizing while going into it… was just how hard it would be to pair things down to a list of fifteen games. There are so many titles I wanted to include, but I had to come up with a hard rationale for each and every one on the list. So there will be titles that are conspicuously absent, and others that I have included that you wouldn’t think of. However the final list includes titles that I learned some lesson from along the way. Gauntlet (1985) I grew up … [Read more...] about 15 Gaming Influences
GDC 2018: Bridging and embedding cross-platform online communities
As this year’s GDC coverage is winding down, I am finally coming to the topic I saved for last: community. MMOs are more than just multiplayer. We attract the “alone together” people more than the “FPS hero” crowd in our comments section for a reason; MMOs are virtual worlds. They’re a digital space inhabited by other people. We may not talk to them, but we watch and listen. Maybe we engage, maybe we group, maybe we guild. We do stuff in a shared environment because we think, or hope, we’re part of a larger system. And this is why we need to talk about cross-platform communities and the strength of in-game, embedded community tools. As social media rises and mobile crashes against our PC fortress, increased console cross-play should be a reminder that we’re all gamers, and (some) developers are finally getting that. Bringing people together The panel on bridging cross-platform communities, held by Eric Cleaver (NetEase Games), … [Read more...] about GDC 2018: Bridging and embedding cross-platform online communities